The girl jumped off a roof to kill herself–after, police say, she polled her Instagram followers and 69% of them voted “Death.” Instagram hastens to claim that actually 88% voted “Life”–but by then it was too late.

In Malaysia, “abetting suicide” is a capital offense.

Has social media become an idol, a false god? Go ahead, tell me that it hasn’t. This is peer pressure on steroids.

We please the true God by loving one another and keeping His commandments. He would never ask us to kill ourselves. But false gods always demand much more of us than the Father ever does.

Are we ready to change our ways yet? Or would we rather slide a bit further down this slope?

This is not the first time leftids have tried to confer godhood on some creepy politician. Remember Obama worship? Remember him being hailed as “the One”? Remember that Newsweak cover showing him with a halo? I do wish I could un-see those things.

“Beto” told Vanity Fair that he was “just born to be in it”–in the presidential race, that is. But at least one jidrool out there thinks “Beto” was born to be something very much more than that.

This is idol-worship, and it’s as old as the hills. When people turn away from the true God who created them, and redeemed them through Jesus Christ, His Son, they wind up worshiping false gods.

“And the Lord shall scatter thee… thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” Deuteronomy 28:64. He always warns us, and we never listen.

Our false gods are beyond wood and stone. Now they’re made of plastic, or of flesh and blood. Like “Beto.” Just some guy, no more fitted to be anybody’s god than the person standing behind you in the supermarket checkout line.

This always turns out badly. Go ahead, tell me of one time when it didn’t.

There are those who think this only happens because America’s Christianity is evaporating, leaving a religious vacuum to be filled by Science, the state and its minions, celebrities, electronic doodads, sports, money, and whatever else they can think of. But this is not so: the sin of idolatry goes back to the beginning of time. It is inherent in our fallen nature. One of those things we need a Savior for.

And that’s Jesus Christ. Not “Beto.”

How come none of these pseudo-messiahs ever breathes in enough sanity to say, “Whoa! It ain’t me, babe!”?

To set the stage, Jerusalem has been destroyed by the Babylonians, they’ve burned the Temple to the ground. a good chunk of the population has been carried into captivity in a foreign country–and the prophet who warned them of all these things, and accurately foretold what would happen, is still trying to get these blockheads to hear God’s word.

And here’s how they answer him. This is the wives speaking.

“As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not harken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

“And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?” (Jer. 44: 16-18)

And the men stand there like cigar store Indians. Well, what lame excuse could they make?

God through His prophet told these people He would punish them for their sins–which included the worship of idols like the “queen of heaven”–He told them how and when and why He would punish them: and when the smoke clears, the survivors have learned absolutely nothing. They want their idols back.

Makes you wonder why God bothers to speak to us at all. His love for us is perhaps the most mysterious thing about Him.

Well, as Jesus so often said, He who has ears, let him hear. And as we used to sing in Sunday school, with more good sense than we suspected, “Wise up, O men of God.”

I came in for some abuse when I asked atheists “What do you believe in?” and then didn’t accept “rationalism” as an answer. Only because “rationalism” always boils down to a matter of opinion. One man’s “rational” is another man’s wall-climbing crazy.

Like this:

We keep hearing and reading stories about how your “smart” phone and your “smart” TV–beware the word “smart”!–spy on you for this or that government agency or private corporation. They see what you do and hear what you say.

And there are other headlines, scattered all over the Internet, about spy technology that can be placed in your furniture, light bulbs, food, clothing–even sprayed onto your skin without your knowledge. I have no way of knowing how much of this is true.

Now all this information, collected by “smart” devices, is way too much for any number of human beings to store and process: your head would explode. So they pass it on, instead, to a bigger computer and design Al Gore Rhythms to govern how the big computer handles the information. At no point is there an actual mind involved–just this misleadingly named “Artificial Intelligence” that simulates some of the operation of a mind without having any consciousness of what it’s doing–let alone anything we might call a “thought.” There is no intelligence in Artificial Intelligence.

We saw earlier this month how Facebook’s Al Gore Rhythm decided, on the Fourth of July, that our Declaration of Independence was “hate speech.” That was mindless. The computer had no ability to take into account the historical context of the document, or to weigh the intent of its content against the current Political Correctness value of its language. Humans eventually had to override their own computer’s brainless simulation of a decision.

The point is, computers and their Al Gore Rhythms are bloody stupid–and so are those who put their trust in them. Just like those who put their trust in idols: see Psalm 135: 15-18 (“They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them”).

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands… They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. —Psalm 115

I think there’s even a technical term for this. Now what could it be? Ooh-ooh, I know! Idol worship!

Excuse me. Batteries were running low, and had to interrupt my post to plug this laptop into the wall. I wonder what they’ll do when their godhead runs out of juice.

Can you believe it? People who are supposed to be smart, but who in fact are gibbering morons, actually propose to worship something that they create with their own hands. Not only is this foolishness; it is incredibly ancient foolishness. Ours is the most expensively and time-consumingly “educated” society in all of human history. And if that doesn’t make you laugh out loud, it ought to make you cry.

O Lord our God, please remember, when you judge our country, that these things are done without our consent, against our will, and over our objections. Amen.

So my prefesser he Told “me” thay are goin to Bild a collony on The Moon and aslo thay are goin “to bild” a Tempal thare too! Butt “this hear Tempal it” wil “bee difrint! he “sayed.” becose “thare wont be no god” in it! and Thats becose thay wont have No religgion On “the” Moon and aslo thay wont Have “no” countryes and no Postesions neither!!! Just lyke in “imajin” by Jhon Lemon!!!

I aksed wehn They goin to bild This “and,” he sayed not jist yet “It Wil Take some time “to” get al the Wood and Tar Paper up on the Moon with a Rocket and i sayed Why we got to weigt?? “Wyh dont wee jist bild Our own Tempal rihght Hear on The Collidge Campas??” That is a Exskelent idear! He sayed. “Evry Place it neeeds a Tempal without no god in it!! Becose we” dont never Whant no Religgin on Campus, only Sceince!!!

wel we got to has something To “warship” in thare or else christins thay wil sneek in and Prey! So how abuot We warship Pressident Obamma? We all reddy got His statchue al we got to doo Is “move” it intoo The Tempal. And my Prefesser he sayed That “is” anether Grate Idear! Becose first Al Life Evulved from Rocks that got rayned on and than Peple Evulved and than Pressdint Obamma He evulved and he going to Creete evrything from Now On becose he “have” evulved into a sort of god but not That christin busniss!!!

So untill we Can “go to” The Moon and warship in That Tempal that hasnt got no religgion This wil do jist fine!!!

Was it the Pharaoh who wouldn’t let the people go? Surely Adam and Eve are in the running. But those were major, world-shaping sins whose effects are still being felt today.

No–I’d say, hands down, the biggest chowderhead in the Bible is Amaziah, king of Judah, son of J0ash. He becomes king in Chapter 24 of 2 Chronicles, and in Chapter 25, Verse 14, he invades Edom and conquers it.

And what does he do next? He “brought the gods of the children of Seir [Edom], and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.”

God sent a prophet the ask Amaziah the entirely reasonable question, “Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” (v. 15) Amaziah refused to listen, and threatened the prophet into silence.

The rest of his career is briefly told. He picked a fight with Israel and lost, to the great cost of the people of Judah, and fifteen years later was assassinated by his own subjects.

It took the world some 2,500 years to generate leaders who could match Amaziah for perverse stupidity. By now we have a bumper crop of them. “Hmmm… I think I’ll drop the real God, who gave me everything I have, and worship the idols of these pagans whom I’ve just defeated in a war… Yeah, that ought to work!”

Yes, truly worthy of Angela Merkel. Maybe even worthy of Obama. Definitely Bidenesque in its depth of foolishness.